Finance Act 1997

100 Mergers of authorised unit trusts

(1) Section 87 of the Finance Act 1986 shall not apply as regards an agreement to transfer securities which constitute property which is subject to the trusts of an authorised unit trust (“the target trust”) to the trustees of another authorised unit trust (“the acquiring trust”) if the conditions set out in subsection (2) below are fulfilled.

(2) Those conditions are that—

(a) the agreement forms part of an arrangement under which the whole of the available property of the target trust is transferred to the trustees of the acquiring trust;

(b) under the arrangement all the units in the target trust are extinguished;

(c) the consideration under the arrangement consists of or includes the issue of units (“the consideration units”) in the acquiring trust to the persons who held the extinguished units;

(d) the consideration units are issued to those persons in proportion to their holdings of the extinguished units; and

(e) the consideration under the arrangement does not include anything else, other than the assumption or discharge by the trustees of the acquiring trust of liabilities of the trustees of the target trust.

(3) Where—

(a) stamp duty is not chargeable on an instrument by virtue of section 95(1) above, or

(b) section 87 of the [1986 c. 41.] Finance Act 1986 does not apply as regards an agreement by virtue of subsection (1) above,

section 87 of the Finance Act 1986 shall not apply as regards an agreement, or a deemed agreement, to transfer a unit to the managers of the target trust which is made in order that the unit may be extinguished under the arrangement mentioned in section 95(2)(a) or, as the case may be, subsection (2)(a) above.

(4) In this section—

• “authorised unit trust” means a unit trust scheme in the case of which an order under section 78 of the [1986 c. 60.] Financial Services Act 1986 is in force;

• “the whole of the available property of the target trust” means the whole of the property subject to the trusts of the target trust, other than any property which is retained for the purpose of discharging liabilities of the trustees of the target trust;

• “unit” and “unit trust scheme” have the same meanings as in Part VII of the [1946 c. 64.] Finance Act 1946.

(5) Each of the parts of an umbrella scheme (and not the scheme as a whole) shall be regarded for the purposes of this section as an authorised unit trust; and in this section “umbrella scheme” has the same meaning as in section 468 of the Taxes Act 1988 and references to parts of an umbrella scheme shall be construed in accordance with that section.

(6) This section applies—

(a) to an agreement which is not conditional, if the agreement is made on or after the day on which this Act is passed but before 1st July 1999; and

(b) to a conditional agreement, if the condition is satisfied on or after the day on which this Act is passed but before 1st July 1999.